Perception Simulation Engineer II/III

At Zone 5 Technologies, we're redefining what's possible in unmanned aircraft systems. Our team of engineers and innovators is developing cutting-edge autonomous solutions that push the boundaries of UAS technology - solving complex challenges that matter.

We're building the future of UAS capabilities, and we're looking for exceptional talent to join us. If you're driven by hard problems, energized by rapid innovation, and ready to make an impact on next-generation flight systems, you belong here.

We are looking for a Perception Simulation Engineer to build the sensor-simulation and synthetic-data backbone  of our Unreal Engine simulation environment. Where a general mission-simulation engineer builds worlds and vehicle dynamics, this role is focused specifically on  making simulated perception good enough to develop and validate real perception and target-tracking software before flight  - high-fidelity RGB and thermal (IR) camera models, sensor feeds streamed onto ROS 2 topics, and synthetic data pipelines that feed our detection, tracking, and Target State Estimation (TSE) stacks. 

You will work at the seam between the Unreal Engine and perception pipelines, turning "we can render a scene" into "we can trust the perception numbers coming out of the sim." This is a foundational effort. 

We welcome both generalists and specialists-you do not need every skill listed below. 

Responsibilities:  

Synthetic Sensor Modeling (core of the role)  

• Build high-fidelity  RGB and long-wave IR (thermal)  camera models in Unreal Engine, and render both views from platform-mounted cameras. 

• Tune simulated camera output to  match (or closely approximate) real-world camera performance  - FOV, resolution, framerate, thermal response - driven by the specs of the sensors we actually fly (e.g. FLIR Boson / Boson+ LWIR). 

• Implement realistic sensor noise, artifacts, motion blur, and failure modes so perception software is tested against hard cases, not clean renders. 

• Support  camera articulation independent of vehicle orientation  (gimbal/boresight), so control-envelope requirements can be derived directly from camera specs. 

ROS 2 Integration  

• Publish simulated camera imagery and sensor data onto ROS 2 topics  using the shared strive_msgs / strive_interfaces contracts, so the same interface serves sim and hardware. 

• Implement and test developer contracts and fulfill deterministic simulation requirements. 

• Feed the perception pipeline and downstream  Target State Estimation (TSE)  with simulated sensor streams and ground-truth labels for evaluation. 

Synthetic Data & Target Simulation  

• Build  synthetic-data generation and export pipelines  (imagery + bounding boxes / segmentation / range + pose ground truth) suitable for training and evaluating detection, tracking, and TSE models. 

• Implement  target injection: spawn and drive targets (vehicles, people, infrastructure) with configurable motion, including  dynamic add/remove during a running mission  to simulate delayed deployments and dynamic scenarios. 

• Support target-hint / track integration based on ground based sensor tracking and ground-truth generation for scoring TSE accuracy (position/velocity/acceleration error). 

Asset & Scenario Pipeline  

• Own the process to  import external target CAD  (e.g. TurboSquid) and  Zone 5 platform CAD  into the sim as usable, correctly-scaled models. 

• Manage the 3D asset pipeline (models, materials, thermal material properties for the IR view). 

• Enforce scenario-driven rules that need perception ground truth - e.g. inter-platform/target proximity and fratricide detection (position of each entity per timestep, squared-distance comparison against a scenario parameter for performance). 

Performance & Scale  

• Optimize rendering for real-time and accelerated modes; build headless simulation  modes for large-scale parallel scenario execution. 

• Collaborate with the platform team to run perception sim in CI/CD  for continuous evaluation of perception/TSE software. 

Qualifications:  

• Bachelor's in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Robotics, Game Development, or related field - equivalent industry experience welcome. 

• 3-6+ years developing in Unreal Engine with C++, including custom plugins/modules. 

• Working knowledge of ROS 2  and integrating it with a simulation environment. 

• Solid grounding in 3D graphics, real-time rendering, and camera/sensor models  - projection, FOV, framerate, noise, and how they affect a downstream vision algorithm. 

• Practical understanding of  camera-based perception  (detection/tracking) and what makes synthetic imagery useful (or useless) for developing it. 

• Comfortable with software architecture, design patterns, and collaborative version-control workflows. 

Preferred:  

• Experience building sensor simulation for robotics/autonomous vehicles, especially  thermal/IR  or multi-modal (EO/IR/lidar/radar) sensing. 

• Familiarity with  synthetic data generation  for ML perception (labels, sim-to-real gap, domain randomization). 

• Knowledge of  state estimation / multi-target tracking  (Kalman/EKF, track-to-track association) enough to build meaningful TSE test scenarios. 

• Experience with  edge perception deployment  (NVIDIA Jetson, TensorRT) and matching sim interfaces to on-target interfaces. 

• Familiarity with UAV flight dynamics (JSBSim/PX4 SITL), gimbal/boresight modeling, and camera-on-platform geometry. 

• GPU programming / compute shaders; procedural terrain or environment generation. 

• Python for tooling and data-pipeline automation; Blueprint for rapid prototyping. 

• 3D asset workflows (Blender/Maya) or photogrammetry; distributed/networked simulation. 

• CI/CD for game-engine projects; deterministic / real-time simulation experience. 

Pay range for this role

$145,000—$175,000 USD

What's in it for you:

Benefits: 

• Competitive total compensation package 
• Comprehensive benefit package options include medical, dental, vision, life, and more.
• 401k with company-match 
• 3 weeks of paid time off each year
• 40 hours of sick time
• 12 annual company holidays

Why Join Zone 5 Technologies?

• Innovative Environment: Work on cutting-edge technology that is shaping the future of defense and aerospace.
• Collaborative Culture: Join a team of passionate professionals dedicated to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.
• Career Growth: Opportunities for professional development and career advancement.

If you are passionate about unmanned aircraft technology and want to be a part of a dynamic and growing company, we would love to hear from you. Apply today and join the Zone 5 Technologies team! 

In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire.

Zone 5 Technologies is a federal contractor and participates in E-Verify to confirm employment eligibility. As required by law, we will verify the identity and employment authorization of all new employees using the E-Verify system. Learn more about your rights and responsibilities under E-Verify:  https://www.e-verify.gov.